Here are a handful of great articles and stories I’ve come across in the past few weeks that I really enjoyed. Big surprise, all of them feature babies, mothers or motherhood:
I get weekly emails from Baby Center that keep me updated on G’s development and my pregnancy as well. I especially loved this one, which informed me that toddlers between 1 and 2 gain more than 2 million new synapses in their cerebral cortex every second! Isn’t that crazy? As I’ve been constantly reminded lately, babies are amazing.
This article on what’s in expectant mothers’ hospital bags around the world was so interesting. It gave me some great ideas of what I might have forgotten last time (my own shampoo, conditioner and face wash! Big mistake.), what I can do without (pretty much anything in a pinch — some mothers really have only the bare necessities), and what I should be thankful my hospital will provide for me (um…clips for the umbilical cord?! We are seriously so lucky to live in a country with readily available advanced healthcare).
Both this post and this one on adoption popped up in my feed this month, and I was so moved by them. I never thought a lot about adoption in the past, but these two stories showed me just how beautiful it is for a family to be created in this way. I am in awe of these two women and their sweet families.
I am pretty much obsessed with all of Mother‘s profiles of mothers and mothers-to-be (they ask the best questions and take the most compelling photographs of expectant and current mothers in their (always) beautiful homes). This one was especially great to read, as I’ve been on the lookout for inspiration from mothers of boys ever since I found out we are expecting a second one (did I say that here yet? If not, surprise!).
This apartment makeover story made me so happy. I’ve been following Lucy’s story via one of my favorite blogs, A Cup of Jo, and it was so great to see how a new space affected her. (I can’t wait to read her late husband’s book, When Breath Becomes Air, sometime this year.)
Park and Division 